A Little Light Reading
by JillSwinburne
Summary: While snooping around in Mac's desk Stella comes across something rather odd. Mostly friendship but perhaps hints of a little more towards the end.


Hey folks, time for another slightly smacked oneshot from yours truly. Hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: If Mac Taylor belonged to me I'd be far too busy to write fanfiction.

**A Little Light Reading**

Stella was bored. Make that _very _bored.

Mac had called on the way back from a collar to say he'd take her out to dinner once he and Flack were through booking the guy. They hadn't gone out in a while and the thought of sharing a meal with Mac that wouldn't have to be eaten on the run made her smile. Besides which it was her day off tomorrow and she was determined to have several glasses of wine before the evening was through seeing as she didn't have the get up early the next morning.

But apparently the precinct was busy or the traffic was bad because it had been half an hour since he called and there was still no sign of Mac. Stella's stomach was beginning to show signs of rebellion.

Giving up twiddling her thumbs at her desk she switched off the lamp and headed to the locker room to collect her things but when she came out again there was still no Mac.

Sighing she let herself into his office, dumping her coat and purse on the sofa by the door.

She stood with her hands on her hips and cast her eyes around the room. Anyone who didn't know Mac that well might think that he had an inflated ego judging from the number of photographs he had in here. There were pictures of him in his marine uniform and with his unit, there was one of him shaking hands with the president when he received one of his medals which hung, with its fellows, in a case on the wall behind his desk. Then there were the pictures from his time at the PD and the lab. In fact the only picture in the room in which he did not feature was the one on the little table to one side of his desk, it was a picture of his parents but even then she could see his eyes and jaw in the image of his father.

She knew that that picture had once adorned his bedside table, while a similar one of Claire's parents graced hers on the other side. The same could be said of most of the things in the room. At one time they had all shared his home along with his wife but when she had gone he had put them all away.

He had gotten rid of everything that was hers or reminded him of her. The few things that did remain, the odd photograph, some books, the odd knick-knack had all been packed away in boxes and hidden away and all of this had gone too. She had gone to the apartment one night to check on him and found him living in what was effectively and empty shell. It had been like one of those show-rooms you get at department stores; clean and furnished but lacking any real human connection.

That was when he'd started spending all his time at the lab. It was understandable of course, it wasn't as if he had much to go home to anymore. And gradually his office, the place that was now more home to him than home, had begun to fill with the little pieces of his life, the little pieces of himself that he needed to survive. One of the first things to appear there had been that picture of his parents as though, like a child who wakes from a nightmare, alone and scared, the mere idea of their presence comforted him.

He'd moved since then, more bits and pieces finding first temporary and then permanent refuge in his office. When the whole department had been moved to their shiny new home the accumulated shards of Mac Taylor had come with them.

She knew too from occasional visits that there was once again evidence of Claire in his home, the hidden pictures had come out of hiding once more. But nothing was ever removed from the office. She drew a strange kind of comfort from that, in the knowledge that wherever he was at any time there was always a part of him here, close-by.

Stella shook herself, coming out of her reverie. Hunger was clearly making her light-headed.

She strolled around to the other side of his desk and plonked herself down in his chair.

Pulling the keyboard towards her she logged into the network and checked her e-mails on Mac's computer but there was nothing there that hadn't been there when'd checked fifteen minutes ago.

Sighing she pulled out her phone and tried calling him but after it rang a few times it went to voice-mail. That was normal, at this time on a Friday evening the precinct could be pretty noisy and it wouldn't surprise her if he didn't hear his phone.

Just to be on the safe side she paged him as well but frowned when she heard a familiar buzzing coming from one of the desk drawers in front of her.

Sighing she opened the drawer and after rifling through some papers managed to find Mac's pager where he had left it, showing a low battery signal.

Typical, she thought.

She switched the pager off and was about to toss it back in the drawer when she stopped. Beneath the pile of papers which made up the majority of the drawer's contents she had noticed something red.

Normally Stella would never dare pry into Mac's desk but she was really bored and really hungry and besides, it wasn't as if he was going to see her so she shifted the papers a little further and uncovered a book. She slid it out of the drawer.

It was medium sized and covered with a faded red cover that looked as though it had been made in the fifties. It was a little ragged around the edges and there was what appeared to be a coffee stain in one corner.

The title, picked out in black and gold, proclaimed it to be, "King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard".

Stella smiled to herself. How very Mac Taylor.

She'd never been much of a one for classic novels. Something trashy and romantic she could read on the beach or during a coffee break was her idea of a good book. Mac's tastes obviously stretched towards the slightly more literary.

There was a marker about half way through and she opened it up. But immediately she did so she frowned. There was something very wrong here. Apart from the fact that the paper of the pages appeared to be new and the binding white nylon she was sure that if there was a chapter twenty-four in "King Solomon's Mines" that it was probably not entitled, "Too Much Tequilla".

She was also fairly sure that even if such a chapter did exist in Haggard's text that it probably didn't contain the kind of interesting social and sexual situations described on the page she was currently reading. Situations which she recognised.

Sure enough when she removed the phoney red dust-jacket she found a brand new hardback copy of Hannah Barrat's best seller "Romance is Made For Two".

Stella began to smirk to herself and was still smirking when Mac turned up ten minutes later, apologising for taking so long.

"I hate to quote Danny but,"

"The traffic was murder," they both said together.

"You ready to go?" he asked and she nodded.

They took a cab to a little diner they both liked and sat near the back in one of the little booths they had.

Stella let him talk over dinner. It wasn't often that Mac talked about anything, even work, when he was off duty. Usually he let her do the talking but tonight he was in a good mood and she was happy to let him ramble on.

When their food was done they both leaned back from the table, Stella still holding her wine glass, Mac with a bottle of beer. There was a content, companionable silence for a little while and then Stella decided to burst the bubble.

"So Mac," she said, getting his attention, "you do much reading lately?"

He frowned at the question.

"Reading?" he asked, clearly with no idea what she was going on about.

"Yeh, you know, books."

He shrugged.

"Can't say that I have. Why?"

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "Only you always seem to know so many quotations and analogies, I thought you must spend most of your free time reading."

Mac had the good grace to blush slightly at that.

"I don't get to read as much as I'd like," he replied quietly.

She smiled, going in for the kill.

"Funny," she said off-handly, "only I could have sworn I saw you reading something in your office the other day."

"It was probably a report," he joked lightly. "Some of them are pretty thick."

But she shook her head.

"No, it was definitely a book. It had a red cover."

That had him. He had definitely flinched.

"Red huh?" he murmured, looking at his hands which were folded around his beer bottle.

"Yeh."

He gave a slight shrug.

"I think there's a copy of "King Solomon's Mines" in my desk somewhere."

""King Solomon's Mines" huh?"

"It was a birthday present form my parents when I was about eleven." He was blushing again. "It uh… it's still my favourite book."

Stella couldn't help but smile at that. He was still looking at his hands in embarrassment. He really could be terribly sweet at times.

But she had a mission here and quite frankly she was through playing nice.

"So it couldn't possibly have been a copy of "Romance is Made For Two" made up to look like "King Solomon's Mines"?"

He started like a horse out of the gate at the Derby. His eyes were wide with a mixture of shock and horror and his grip on the bottle was so tight it was threatening to smash in his hands. Stella couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up in her at the sight of his expression.

"I… but… how did you?... Stella?"

Apparently shock took away Mac's ability to form coherent sentences.

She waited until she had finished giggling and then explained her find to him but his embarrassment only seemed to increase and he went silent, staring at the table top until Stella began to worry that she had somehow upset or offended him.

"Um, I didn't mean to snoop," she said, reaching a hand across the table to gently brush against his.

Finally he looked up once more and gave her a sheepish smile.

"I really need to get locks fitted to those drawers," he said and they shared a smile.

"But come on," she said, extracting her hand and leaning back in her seat once more, "why were you hiding a trashy romance novel inside another dust-jacket?"

The blush was back once more and his eyes looked everywhere but at her.

"You'd think it was dumb," he said quietly.

"Probably," she joked, "but tell me anyway."

He sighed.

"I was in the book store a couple of weeks ago. Actually I was looking for something for your birthday."

He chanced a quick glance at her then and she smiled at him, flushing slightly herself.

"Anyway I came across this section of Romance novels and this one caught my eye. I remembered you mentioning you'd read it on vacation last year so I thought I'd give it a try."

He looked at her once more when he was finished.

"Dumb enough?" he asked with a small smile.

It was Stella's turn to be silent. She was strangely stunned and moved by his little confession; both that he had been thinking about her birthday almost a month in advance of the actual event and that he had bothered to try reading something so puerile simply because she had mentioned it.

After a moment she stood and moved around to his side of the booth. He watched her carefully as she leaned over and, cupping his face with one hand she gently kissed him on the cheek.

"You're a very sweet man Mac Taylor," she told him quietly.

They stayed there for a few minutes, smiling quietly to each other until the waitress brought their cheque. Mac paid and together they wandered out into the chill of the city at night.

Standing by the kerb Mac hailed a cab and opened the door for Stella.

"Why don't you come with me?" she asked, leaning on the door.

He smirked at her.

"Whenever I offer to share a cab you're always telling me we live on opposite sides of town," he said.

She grinned at him.

"That's true," she said, slipping into the back of the cab.

"Of course," she continued, "if you come with me I might let you have a sneak preview of chapter thirty."

"Oh really? Does that chapter have a title too?"

"Oh yes. It's called "Stockings and Lace"."

She smiled at him innocently and Mac couldn't help but gulp slightly.

"Maybe I could afford to skip a few chapters," he murmured as he slid into the cab beside her.

* * *

Just in case your were wondering there is no chapter twenty-four in KSM, it only goes up to chapter twenty but it is an excellent book and I just thought it would be right up Mac's street. As to the trashy novel that they're reading, neither it nor its author actually exists which is probably just as well lol.

Please review if you liked it, or even if you didn't like it :D


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